is Schnoor--must be at that time in Araguary, looking after the
construction of the new railway line which will eventually join Araguary
to the capital of Goyaz. I went in search of him, stumbling along the
terrible roads with deep holes and pools of water and mud. As luck would
have it, I was able to purchase from him, that very same evening, a
number of excellent mules, which he very generously had offered to place
at my disposal without payment. Also he promised to supply me with two
reliable men--a job not at all easy in that particular part of Brazil.

[Illustration: Author departing from Morro da Meza,

Showing costume worn during the expedition.]

[Illustration: Alcides. Filippe the Negro.]

Mr. Louis Schnoor--a Brazilian of German extraction--was a godsend to
me. Thanks to him, I returned that night quite happy to the miserable
hotel. Happy, because in less than half an hour I had arranged to leave
that pestilential hole the following day. Mr. Schnoor had kindly
undertaken that he would send me, at eleven o'clock the next morning, in
a special train to the end of the line in construction, some 45 kil.
farther north. In a town of gentle folks like Araguary the luxury of
sleeping with one's window open could not be indulged in--especially as
nearly all the houses were one storey high. So the night was rendered
particularly oppressive and long, tormented as you were in your bed by
its innumerable inhabitants, which stung you all over. I had taken the
precaution to spread a waterproof sheet under my own blankets on the bed,
but that, too, proved ineffective. Mosquitoes were numerous.

No sanitary arrangements to speak of existed in Araguary, so that
everything was flung out of the windows into the streets, which made
walking about the town most objectionable. The odour everywhere was
revolting, as can well be imagined. The city was nevertheless considered
by the natives as all that is most perfect in the way of civilization,
for not only did it possess a few anaemic electric lights--so far apart as
to be a nuisance instead of a help in seeing one's way about--but also,
behold! it actually boasted of a spasmodic cinematograph. There were some
500 houses, all counted, at Araguary, all more or less miserable-looking,
and a population of some 2,500 souls--"lost souls," I should think.

Slowly, very slowly came the next morning, March 31st. At ten o'clock
sharp I called on the Chief of Police at his hotel, and found